Building
Beautiful Chaos
ABOUT
Hi, I'm Jen - wife, mother and DIY enthusiast. I live with my rather remarkable and saintly husband Chris and our 3 young boys (aka "Creators of Chaos") in a small town in rural Gloucestershire.
I think renovating and DIY runs in my blood. It is certainly something I've never been phased of and always something I have enjoyed. I have many fond childhood memories of helping my parents renovate our family home: weekends spent passing screws and tools to my father; holding up plasterboard or a bit of studwork; rooting around in the loft or under the floor to thread pipes or cabling (the perks of being little!); and so much more! My parents really are inspirations to me, even if they have passed on their slightly bonkers attitude to homes, building and all things DIY.
It was never going to be on the cards to buy a ready done house; when I made the decision to buy my first home, there was only one essential requirement on the list - potential. And lots of it. I wanted to get my hands dirty, I wanted to take down walls, I wanted a house that was in desperate need of some TLC that I could put my stamp on and make into a home, and in 2013 I found just that: a 1930s end of terrace in a small Gloucestershire town that still had its original (rotten!) windows, no heating or hot water, some rather interesting electrics, a roof that leaked and had barely been touched for the previous 50 years. Was it love at first sight - far from it! But it did tick that box of having potential and I knew with some hard work and a lot of time and patience, it would be a great project and first step on the property ladder.
Shortly after starting the renovation, I met Chris and it's fair to say that, unlike the house, it was love at first sight. On our first date we talked about the future: about homes and ambitions and tastes and styles and it turned out we had quite a lot in common. Rather than doing what any sensible man would do and running a mile, he fully embraced me and the total chaos I brought into his life and so, together we have made our little house our home.
The plan had always been to complete the house, sell it on, use the profit to help us buy our "forever home" and do it all over again. But - as anyone who's ever undertaken a renovation will know - these things never run to time (especially when you're working on an old house with unforeseen problems and a shoestring budget while holding down full time jobs!) and so with the arrival of our 3 boys it has very much become our family home. And that now means one thing - time to build an extension!
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